The Strategies for a Great Introduction section of the instructor guide has some general guidelines: https://instructors.tutsplus.com/guide/course/introductions.php
We're now asking that every course has an introduction that uses these best practices.
With respect to visual engagement, we're asking specifically that
- the lesson not start with a view of the Tuts+ desktop or a title card
- the lesson incorporate previews of coding and/or the course project
Following is a template for an introduction aligned with the guidelines. Feel free to use this template for your introduction, or to come up with your own!
I. Why (15 seconds)
- why the course topic is great/important/popular
II. Who (10 seconds)
- introduce yourself and welcome to the course
III. What & How (30 seconds)
- what will be covered in the course
- what the student would learn
- the nature of the example project (eg. "We'll be building a simple pizza delivery app")
The video channel should by dynamic and might have some of the following elements:
- framework homepage(s) or example of sites built with that technology
- snippets of live coding or other activity pulled from later in the course
- running/using the sample app